1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a contrast medium injector, and a diagnosis system equipped with the same.
2. Description of the Related Art
A medical diagnosis system is designed to provide much information regarding an object based on an image and the like, and plays an important role in many medical practices including a disease diagnosis, a treatment, an operation plan, etc. Currently available medial diagnosis devices are mainly an ultrasonic diagnosis system, an X-ray CT scanner, an diagnostic X-ray system, a magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) system, a nuclear medical diagnosis system, and so on.
For diagnoses carried out by using such medial diagnosis systems, there is an examination method using a contrast medium. According to this contrast medium examination method, for example, in the case of photographing an X-ray image, a contrast medium having a large X-ray attenuation rate is used, and an internal or peripheral portion of an organ is extracted based on a shadow. A type or a dosage of a contrast medium used to photograph such an X-ray image varies depending on the purpose of the examination, and a region to be inspected.
Such a contrast medium is injected into the blood vessel, the intestine or the like of the object by, for example, a contrast medium injector. The contrast medium injector injects the contrast medium into the object by using power of a pneumatic pressure, a motor, a hydraulic pressure, etc. based on a dosage of the contrast medium and an injection pressure which are decided according to essential items, entered by an operator, including the purpose of the examination, the region to be inspected, and so on.
However, in the conventional contrast examination, the dosage of the contrast medium, the injection pressure, etc. must all be entered on the contrast device side for each examination. Consequently, the operator is required to carry out the burdensome operation of setting contrast medium conditions for each examination, which is one cause of the increase in burdens imposed on the operator and a work/examination time.
The present invention has been developed in view of the foregoing situations, and an object of the present invention is to provide a contrast medium injector capable of reducing burdens imposed on the operator and shortening an examination time by simplifying a method of setting contrast conditions. Another object of the present invention is to provide a diagnosis system equipped with the above contrast medium injector.